Yvonne Gordon reports from the BAC Octoberfest

Physical dexterity, humour and longing pervade Tiny Dynamite, performed by Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham as Lucien and Steven Hoggett as Anthony, co-directing with Vicky Featherstone from Paines Plough.

Written by Abi Morgan and designed by Julian Crouch, the show combines multi-media with a theatrical narrative, simultaneously surreal and uncomfortably close-to-home.

Lucien, Anthony and Jasmin Hyde as Madeleine play out the intensity and richness of the script, where romantic messages are read in the patterns of the stars, the physics of the possibility of death by a flying egg sandwich is debated, the tale of a suicide who felt mistakenly unloved is a recurring theme and the blind lady alone at Christmas brings tears to the eyes.

Both men are haunted by the past which is churned up in heart-rending detail, when they meet Madeleine, confidante, love-interest and muse.

The moon projected onto a piece of cloth and other images which convey emotions more graphically than words, the magic of a childhood experience of lightning creating a person with special qualities and rather tasteless jokes all serve to make this a compelling and provocative evening, very enjoyable despite not shying away from life's underbelly.

In contrast, Niall Ashdown's Hungarian Bird Festival is a comic one-man show about obsession as expressed through a birdwatchers' holiday the writer/performer had with his father in Hungary.

Their relationship comes across graphically in all its absurd highs and lows as does the hilarious characterisation of the types on the trip, from the 82-year-old from Florida to the Val Doonican-type host, whose the highlight is the bird-of-the-week award with a mind-boggling list of 129 species of birds.

The piece as a whole draws a distinction between normal appreciation of our feathered friends and the attitude of people who would go to Venezuela, for example, and literally do nothing else other than bird-spot.

A very entertaining show which also takes a long hard look into the absurdity of being human.

November 6, 2001 11:30